Conspiracy
by Tasermon's Partner
Summary: Conspiracy - (noun) 1) The making of a secret agreement or plan by a group of conspirators. 2) A grouping or family of Ravens that often flock or work together.


AN: Umm, hi! This is only the second Teen Titans fic I've ever posted (and the first one to feature the "primary" Titans) and I wrote the other one _years_ ago, so I hope that this turns out okay. Raven may seem slightly out of character and overly (for her) emotional in this fic, but my hope is that I covered it well and that the circumstances warranted it. I also hope that my grammar and structure are okay. Please let me know what you think and if you have any constructive criticism on how I can improve. Thanks!

* * *

Despite all of the "unusual" items that her satchel had carried through the years, from voodoo dolls to scrolls filled with spells and incantations, Raven never imagined that stuffed toys and children's books would be amongst them.

And yet, as she finished securing said satchel across her shoulder, and an increasingly familiar feeling of anxiety washed over her, she found that she was actually becoming so attached to the notion that she wondered how she did without it.

Out of habit, she glanced at the calendar on the wall again. It was probably the tenth time she had done so today.

She was becoming obsessed, she realized.

Worse, she was becoming nervous.

She LOATHED being nervous.

Especially over something like this.

After all, it was really just a day like any other day. She wasn't even sure that they celebrated _that_ day over there. And even so, she didn't really even know if they felt that way…about her.

Yet she glanced at the calendar again.

The second Sunday in May.

She sighed and shook her head. No use in delaying the inevitable. She was going regardless.

Just as she reached for her cloak, the door to the room burst open.

"Pardon the intrusion friend Raven but I-…"

Starfire, floating several inches off the ground, paused to look at her (slightly ticked off) fellow female Titan as she continued securing her cloak.

"Apologies, but are you going somewhere?"

"Yesss," the response was agitated and slightly drawn out (not that her perky orange companion noticed), "I was going to visit the monastery."

"EEEPPP!"

Raven almost jumped back at the unexpected squeal. Starfire's eyes went wide and her expression changed to one of panicked worry.

"But Raven, I was, uh, hoping that you would accompany me to the mall of shopping today! The boys have refused and it is more enjoyable with the company of another! We could even partake of the store of books that tell of spells and goth and witchery that you enjoy!"

"Sorry Star, but I need to go to the monastery today."

"But, but, but…do you not usually visit the monastery on the day of the week known as Friday? And is today not Sunday?"

"Yes, but if you'll recall, we were busy stopping Slade's latest evil scheme all week, and I haven't had time to visit. Besides, there's a…reason, why I want to visit today. Sorry Star, I promise I'll go with you some other time, but you know how important these visits are to me."

"B-but-"

It was too late. With a wave of her cloak and small chant, Raven disappeared in a flash of darkness, leaving a bewildered and quickly panicking Starfire behind.

"…ROBBIINNN!"

* * *

Raven wandered through the empty hallways of the monastery. It was odd; usually the monks would be bustling this time of day, with meditation being over and it being so close to the evening meal. They had always been pleased to see her and directed her to where they knew she needed to go. Yet she hardly saw anyone today, and those she had seen had looked surprised to see her, then went out of their way to avoid her, and didn't even stop when she called out to them.

Something felt _wrong_.

A tingle of fear washed over her and she now _ran_ (glided) to her destination and burst open the door from ten feet away using just a flick of her wrist.

_Nothing._

The room was empty. Their beds were made; their toys lay on the floor; but no sign of the occupants.

No sign of _the children_.

Raven flew down the corridors in a near-panic now, checking every room and courtyard as she passed. Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of something, and almost had to back-peddle when she nearly flew past in her haste.

_There!_

That deep color of red that matched the poppy blooms that filled the nearby fields in springtime; the colored robes worn only by the monastery's master monk.

"Monk Gyatso! I-"

"Yes, I understand," the monk leaned over the table, talking into the emergency radio, the only form of communication with the outside world. And he was obviously trying to conceal his actions. Raven turned silent to listen. "Yes, the children should be there shortly. I'll try to hold her off for as long as possible. Despite her untimely interference, the plan can still be a success if we are careful."

"What _**plan**_?"

The monk jumped, startled, and dropped the radio as he turned around to see a floating, darkened, malignant form framed by the setting light from the window…a dark form with blood-red glowing eyes, six of them, and small wisps of dark aura emanating from under her cloak.

"O-Oh! Uh, R-Raven, so good to see you! We were not expecting a visit from you today."

"Where are they?" the voice was cold and deadly serious.

"Th-the children, y-yes, of course. They should be in their room, I will have monk Bo-"

"I checked. They're not there. Tell me what you've done with them!"

"Please calm down Mistress Raven, I assure you that-"

"WHERE ARE MELVIN, TIMMY, AND TEETHER?! **WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY CHILDREN?!**"

Seeing that the jig was up, the monk sighed in resignation.

"My most humble apologies Raven, but I am afraid that I cannot tell you."

"You WILL tell me," she repeated, as her red eyes narrowed.

The monk looked apologetic, but nonetheless produced a bo-staff, seemingly from nowhere, and twirled it defiantly around before taking up a defense position.

"I am sorry, but I have given my word, and I can NOT break it!"

He let out a shrill whistle, and squads of monks spilled out from the shadows, surrounding her in concentric circles, and even taking up the rafters. All of them expertly held their simple, but effective, weapons.

Raven's face, framed by six glowing eyes, grew from furious to dead calm.

"Very well…"

About sixty monks…about sixty seconds…that was all the time she could afford. She had to get back and alert the other Titans if there was any chance of finding the children before it was too late.

A wave of monks surged forward, and a tsunami of darkness surged out from her cloak to meet them.

* * *

"ROBIN!"

The scream echoed though Titans Tower for the second time in less than an hour. She had tried to reach the children on their Titans communicator, but no luck, and the communicator's global tracking system also failed.

She was bruised, battered, her cloak was in shatters (those monks did NOT mess around), she couldn't find any of her teammates, she had no idea where the children were or what was being done to them, and worst of all, she was _scared_.

Not nervous, or anxious, or worried, but _**scared**_.

For the first time in a long time she was having trouble controlling her emotions, and that scared her almost as much as the thought of losing the children.

_Almost_.

Hearing a noise from down the hall, and realizing that it was coming from her room, she was immediately on edge again, and the door nearly imploded as her dark aura rammed against it.

She only had a second before a large object was lobbed at her. And she had even less than a second before she realized the object was actually a person and managed to catch him.

UMPH!

"T-Timmy?!"

Raven looked around at the shocked faces of her teammates and the children. _The children?! They were here and they were safe!_

Before any of them could move, and before she even realized what she was doing, Raven had scooped up the three children into her arms and was hugging (her, of all people, actually _hugging_) them tightly against her.

"I'm _so glad_ you're all safe!" she whispered, though she knew everyone could hear her in the silence. For once, she didn't care.

"R-Raven," squeaked out Melvin, "your eyes, they're red!"

Raven choked back a sob, and let the anger and fear wash away from her until she felt herself transform back, all while still hugging the children.

"Is it better now?" she whispered and leaned in her head in towards Melvin.

Melvin shook her head.

"They're not glowing, but they're still red."

"Raven you're cryfing!" said Timmy in concern.

Raven hastily tried to wipe away the tears from her bloodshot eyes, returning them to their normal color.

"There, does that look okay?" she said with a small smile.

The kids all nodded, happy that their guardian had returned to normal.

The small ladder that Timmy had been standing on when he fell finally crashed down onto the floor behind them.

It jolted Raven enough that she finally took a good look around.

"What's… going on here?"

There were streamers and balloons and other decorations hanging from the walls, along with wrapped gifts sitting on the bed. Above the headboard hung a banner that in colorful childish writing proclaimed "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!" with pictures of cuddly animals (most notably a raven) scattered alongside.

Robin came forward, his hand rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Sorry Raven, we tried to get you out of the Tower for a while so we could help them set it up. The children wanted to throw you a surprise party to thank you for all you've done for them. We know that you don't usually like surprises, but, well, they insisted, and…"

"Oh friend Raven, we were defenseless!" intervened Starfire. "They used the eyes of wide innocence and the lips of poutiness and the faces of adorable cuteness so that we could not possibly resist!"

"Yeah not to mention that the loud-mouth there kept wailing so hard we thought he might cause an earth quake!" said Cyborg as he gestured at Timmy, who just stuck his tongue out at him. "The other one kept on trying to chew through my wiring! AND they kept up gumming up my servos with peanut butter!"

"Ahhh, actually, that was me!" giggled Beast Boy.

Raven still looked shocked.

"Sooo, you all did this…for me?"

Her teammates all nodded. Raven looked down at the children. They were staring at the floor in embarrassment, and…trepidation? Melvin shyly fiddled her thumbs and moved her foot in circles across the carpet, uncharacteristically subdued.

"We…we didn't really know if you thought of us like a mom. But, you kinda acted like you were our mom, and we don't really have a mom, so we thought that…maybe…umph!"

Raven hugged them again. But this hug felt different. It was warmth and love, instead of fear and relief. It felt _right_.

"I…didn't know if you would feel that way. I don't know if I could be the kind of mother you deserve. I'm just…so…"

All three of the children shook their heads against her, still embraced.

"But you love us, dontcha Raven?" cried Melvin.

"And that's whaf matters!" added Timmy.

Even Teether agreed as he teethed down on Raven's cape.

Doing something she had never done before, with _anyone_, Raven leaned down and softly kissed each of the children…_**her**_ children…on their foreheads.

"I would love to be your mother."

Then, even Raven felt herself being crushed in a tremendous hug, and looked up to see that the four of them were wrapped in the arms of giant teddy bear.

Raven and the children grinned.

"Yes, you too, Bobby."

The teddy bear smiled back.

* * *

Epilogue

The next few hours felt like a blur to her. The children gave her their hand-made gifts and cards and forced her to play games that she would normally detest playing, and pulled and yanked and shoved her in a million different directions, and babbled and talked and chattered incessantly in a way that, had it been anyone else, would've seriously ticked her off…and yet, she couldn't stop genuinely smiling all the way through it. (Was her face _supposed_ to hurt this much when she smiled for so long?) The other Titans had never seen their normally stoic teammate smile so much or show such happiness outwardly for such a length of time. It must've been infectious, because they were smiling too.

But the emotional roller-coaster she had experienced throughout the day soon took its toll and she gently guided (forced) the children to calm down some as she sat lying against the overstuffed body of the giant teddy bear (another thing she never thought she would ever be doing), cradling a tuckered-out Teether in her arms as Melvin and Timmy cuddled up on either side of her. She would need to meditate heavily later to bring her emotions back under control.

She found her thoughts drifting to her own mother, Arella. Their relationship had always been a strained one, but now maybe it was finally time to fix that. After all, it would be nice if the kids got to know their "grandmother".

_That_ thought almost made her actually laugh at the absurdity of it (she _really_ needed to meditate). Her mother had always wanted her to live a "normal" life and grow up to have children of her own, but she didn't think her mother meant for her to end up with three children (and their giant teddy bear) while she was still a teenaged crime-fighter. Maybe she should take her kids on a visit to Azarath? The shocked look on her mother's face alone would be worth the trip, and with her children boosting her confidence, she felt like she could take on anything, even her mother.

"So Raven," piqued Starfire (who was having way too much fun watching the "adorable" scene for Raven's liking), "does this mean that the children will be living with us in the Tower now, instead of at the monastery?"

Raven shot up!

"Oh crap! THE MONKS!"

* * *

AN: Well, I hope you all enjoyed it! I've wanted to write a Mother's Day fic featuring Raven and the younglings for awhile now, and I finally found the time and motivation this year. In the first episode where Melvin, Timmy, and Teether make their debut, Raven escorts them to a monastery for safe-keeping, and since (to my knowledge) no information to contrary ever came up as to them being moved elsewhere, I figured that maybe they still lived there and Raven made frequent visits, since they were still technically her charges. She seemed somewhat "motherly" and affectionate to them in the episode, so I figured that a natural progression would be for them to all eventually come to see each other openly as being in a mother/children relationship.

I don't really know if they celebrate Mother's Day in Eastern Europe (where I presume the monastery is located), and even if they did, I don't think it would be on the second Sunday in May, but that's when they celebrate it in America, which is where Raven and the Titans Tower is located, so I figured I'd go with that.

Let me know what you thought, or (hopefully) liked about it, and provide any ideas or constructive criticism on how I can improve. Thank you for reading!


End file.
